An Ode to my Roommates & Stuffed Croissant

If someone asked me who some of my foodie influences have been, I would have to say that each one of my roommates has played a role in growing my love and appreciation for food and cooking.  In fact, after my family, my roommates have had the biggest influence on my diet.

Today I am paying special tribute to one very loved roommate in particular, since this happens to be her birthday week.  I have very fond memories of meal time with MC.  As students we would often cook meals for one another.  It was amazing to share meal preparation with someone else – especially during busy exam times.   One of my favorite “MC recipes” is this stuffed croissant, which is great if you are ever hosting people for breakfast or for brunch. It is very simple and easy – but also delicious.

Bonne fête MC!

What you will need:

-1 package of Pillsbury crescents

-1/2 pear, cut up into small pieces

-1/2 apple, cut up into small pieces

-1 package of brie

Directions:

-Lay flat the crescent dough on a baking sheet (although the dough is perforated to make separate croissants, you will still be able to lay it flat to make one large croissant).

-Place the brie in the centre of the dough.

-Add the pieces of pear and apple on top of the brie

-Fold over the dough to close the croissant

-Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 10-15 minutes until the dough is a nice golden brown

Slice and enjoy!

Serves 4

Rosée Salmon Pasta

Though I cheated a bit in the preparation of this meal, I still thought it was worth sharing because 1) it was DE-LISH and 2) it was a little bit of an experiment with smoked salmon.  My father-in-law accidentally bought 4 packs of smoked salmon -thinking they were fillets  (the result of his shopping without his glasses) – and so one of those packs got donated to us. Since I’m not a fan of smoked salmon, I decided to experiment with cooking it – and it worked out well!

I sautéed the salmon in grape seed oil with garlic, onions, salt and pepper and little bit of white wine vinegar …

…then simply cooked up some pasta and threw in a bottle of rosée – and voilà! Smoked salmon for a girl who does not like smoked salmon!

Since this is a pretty heavy meal – I served with a very simple salad: lettuce + tomatoes with grape seed oil (for lack of olive oil) and red wine vinegar

Afghanistan: April 2011 – Alan Taylor – In Focus – The Atlantic

Afghanistan: April 2011 – Alan Taylor – In Focus – The Atlantic.

Just wanted to share these amazing pictures of the conflict in Afghanistan.  Some pictures are really worth 1000 words.

How do you decide what city (town) to live in?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how one goes about choosing where to live.  Perhaps this is because I have been moving around a lot in the last few years, and I am preparing for another move in a few months.  Now that I’ve lived in a few different cities (Toronto, Ottawa, Barcelona, Nice, Cape Town) and have experienced different lifestyles, I’ve realised that some lifestyles and cities work better for me than others.  Although I always thought I would end up in the city where I grew up (Toronto), now I’m not so sure about that anymore.  How does one go about making the decision about where to live? I mean, other than the obvious factors such as family/friends and jobs, what other factors can help guide this decision? Should we just decide to live where life takes us? Or should this decision be a more intentional one?  Even if one decides to live “where life takes you”, one is still often faced with the choice of what neighbourhood/suburb or type of home to dwell in.  So, keeping this in mind, what factors can we use to make such a choice? Again, you can choose to go with obvious factors such as what you like and what fits within your budget, but what I’m trying to get at, is that I think the decision involves a little more than that..

In fact, more and more, I’m starting to believe that one’s core values should really play a (big) part in this decision.  The more I think and read about this question, the more I am drawn to the conclusion that where you live should reflect your values and priorities (as much as possible anyway).  I also note that my internet search revealed that Ottawa is the best city to live in (in Canada), and Halifax is the second best (at least as of 2008: http://howtoliveincanada.com/best-places-to-live-in-canada/)! I guess that means we must be doing something right.  But I digress.